What land is eligible for an SFI agreement
Find out if your land is eligible for an SFI agreement.
Applies to England
This section contains mandatory scheme requirements.
What land is eligible for an SFI agreement
To enter land into an SFI agreement, it must be eligible. This means the land is wholly located in England and that:
- you expect to have management control of the land for the 3-year duration of your SFI agreement – this includes hedgerows, where relevant
- the land is eligible for the SFI actions you choose – this includes hedgerows, where relevant
You can choose what area of eligible land or length of eligible hedgerows to enter into your SFI agreement. There’s no minimum or maximum area.
Management control of land
You must expect to have management control of the land entered into your SFI agreement for its 3-year duration. This includes hedgerows you enter into the SFI actions for hedgerows.
You’ll have management control if you have sufficient control over how the land (and hedgerows, if relevant) is managed to complete what’s required in the SFI actions you choose.
This will usually mean you’re the person actively farming the land (and managing the hedgerows, if relevant), who is:
- the owner occupier, farming the land yourself or employing a contractor
- a tenant with a Farm Business Tenancy (FBT) under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, or an Agricultural Holdings Act 1986 tenancy
- in a group that farms on common land (including areas of shared grazing)
When you enter land (and hedgerows, where relevant) into your SFI agreement, you declare that you’ll have management control of that land (and hedgerows) for the agreement’s 3-year duration. You must supply evidence to show that you do have management control of the land (and hedgerows, if relevant) if we ask for it.
The following information explains:
- what management control means if you occupy land under a tenancy or access it under a licence
- more about management control of hedgerows
To find out what management control means for commoners and shared graziers, read the information on eligibility of commons and shared grazing for an SFI agreement.
Land you occupy under a tenancy
Only a tenant can enter land (including hedgerows, where relevant) occupied under a tenancy into an SFI agreement. This is because they’re the person actively farming the land, not the landlord.
As a tenant, it’s your responsibility to check whether your tenancy agreement allows you to complete what’s required in the SFI actions you choose.
If you occupy land under a tenancy on a ‘rolling’ year-by-year basis, you can enter this land into your SFI agreement if you expect to have management control of that land for the SFI agreement’s 3-year duration.
For example, this may be the case if you occupy land under:
- an FBT granted for a term of more than 2 years, that continues on a rolling year-by-year basis after its initial term ends
- an FBT granted for a term of 2 years or less that you expect your landlord to renew on an annual basis
You must not enter land into an SFI agreement if you do not expect to have management control of that land for its 3-year duration.
If you’re unsure whether you will have management control of the land occupied under a tenancy for the 3-year duration of your SFI agreement, you should check with your landlord.
If you unexpectedly lose management control of the land occupied under a tenancy during your 3-year SFI agreement, you must tell us about this, in writing. We’ll remove that land from your SFI agreement.
If your loss of management control was because of a ‘change of circumstances’, you may not have to repay payments already received for an agreement year if you’ve completed the actions and submitted your annual declaration for the relevant agreement year. Read the information about what happens if you find you cannot comply with your SFI agreement to find out more about a change of circumstances.
Land you access under a licence
If you only have access to land under a licence arrangement (so you’re a licensee), it’s unlikely you have sufficient control over how the land is managed to complete what’s required in the SFI actions you choose.
In this case, the licensor (usually the owner occupier) can enter the land into an SFI agreement and make the licensee aware of its requirements, if relevant.
If, in practice, your arrangement with the landowner gives you wider land management responsibilities, similar to those of a tenant, you may be able to enter this land into an SFI agreement. For example, some licences on Ministry of Defence land operate in this way. If this applies, read the information above about management control of land you occupy under a tenancy.
Management control of hedgerows
To enter both sides of a hedgerow into your SFI agreement, you must have management control of both sides of the hedgerow and the land adjacent to each side of the hedgerow for the 3-year duration of your SFI agreement.
If you only have management control of one side of a hedgerow and adjacent land you must only enter one side into your SFI agreement. This may be the case if:
- a hedgerow is next to a road or track and requires annual or more frequent trimming for public safety reasons – but you can enter it into HRW3 (which is for both sides of a hedgerow) if you can meet the requirements in that action
- one side of a hedgerow and the adjacent land is owned or managed by a neighbour
- a hedgerow is next to a woodland edge
Land that’s eligible for the SFI actions
The land you enter into your SFI agreement must be eligible for each SFI action you choose. This includes hedgerows you enter into the SFI actions for hedgerows.
How we’ll calculate what land may be eligible for the area based SFI actions
If you have to enter a specific area of a land parcel into an action, that’s an ‘area based’ SFI action.
The SFI application service will automatically calculate what area in each land parcel may be eligible for each area based SFI action you choose. This is called the ‘SFI available area’ and it will be shown for each eligible land parcel in your SFI application.
We’ll use the land use code declared for a BPS 2023 application to check what area in a land parcel may be eligible for each area based SFI action you choose. This area also needs to be registered with a land cover that’s compatible with that land use code (a ‘compatible land cover’).
You can find the land use codes for 2023 on GOV.UK. If a land use code was not declared for a BPS 2023 application, contact the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).
When you choose an area based SFI action, the SFI application service will calculate the SFI available area in each land parcel by taking its total area, and deducting the following areas, where relevant:
- land use codes which are ineligible for the SFI action you’ve chosen
- ineligible environmental land management actions or options, such as Countryside Stewardship (CS), Environmental Stewardship (ES), SFI pilot standards
You must check the SFI available area is also an eligible land type for the chosen SFI actions. Read the information on this page about how we define eligible land types and features for SFI. The glossary explains what we mean by a ‘land type’, ‘land use code’ and ‘land cover’.
For example, if you choose IGL2 (winter bird food on improved grassland) and select a 10 hectare (ha) permanent grassland parcel, it will show as 10ha SFI available area in your SFI application if it:
- has been declared with a PG01 (permanent grassland) land use code
- is registered with a compatible permanent grassland land cover on your digital maps
- does not contain any ineligible environmental land management actions or options
To enter the 10ha into IGL2, its land type must be improved permanent grassland rather than another type of permanent grassland.
For each SFI action, read the details of the SFI actions under ‘Where you can do this action’ to find out:
- which land types and land use codes are eligible, and what land covers are compatible with the land use codes
- if an action can be done on a land parcel’s total SFI available area, or on part of that area
Check your hedgerows are eligible for the SFI actions
If you choose the SFI actions for hedgerows (HRW1, HRW2, and HRW3) you must check that the hedgerow is an eligible feature. Read the information below about how we define eligible land types and features for SFI.
How we define eligible land types and features for SFI
This information explains how we define eligible land types and features (hedgerows) for the SFI actions.
If land is registered as ‘fully organic’ or ‘in conversion’ you can do the SFI actions on that land if it’s an eligible land type and it meets the requirements explained in the SFI actions.
The land type must be eligible for the SFI actions you choose at the start of your SFI agreement. If the land type changes because you’re completing the SFI actions this will not affect eligibility. You’ll continue to be paid for the SFI actions.
Arable land
Arable land includes land used to grow arable crops and temporary grassland.
Arable crops
Land that’s been cultivated for crop production, such as combinable crops, field vegetables and cut flowers, bulbs or soft fruit which are not ‘permanent crops’. This includes fallow land that’s available for crop production.
Temporary grassland
Grassland that’s often part of an arable crop rotation and has usually been grassland for less than 5 consecutive years. This can be managed as:
- improved grassland - see the definition below for improved permanent grassland
- grassland with very low nutrient inputs
Permanent crops
Non-rotational horticultural and other types of crops that usually occupy the land for 5 years or more (other than permanent grassland) and provide repeated harvests.
Horticultural permanent crops
Land that’s used for commercial orchards, bush fruits, hops and vines.
Non-horticultural permanent crops
Land that’s used for miscanthus, reed canary grass, nursery crops and short rotation coppice.
Permanent grassland
Land used to grow grass for 5 consecutive years or more that’s not been included in an arable crop rotation. It can either be improved or low input.
Improved permanent grassland
Permanent grassland that’s been agriculturally ‘improved’ by doing one or more of the following activities:
- regularly re-seeding, or reseeding within the last 15 years
- regularly applying fertiliser (typically at least 100kg per hectare of nitrogen as an artificial compound fertiliser or animal manures and slurries)
- blanket herbicide application to treat weeds
- maintaining field drains
- taking conserved forage as silage, haylage or hay, more than once a year
Improved grassland will usually have a high cover of ryegrasses and white clover, with a low cover of wildflowers and sedges.
Low input (semi-improved or unimproved) permanent grassland
Permanent grassland that’s been managed by doing one or more of the following activities:
- no reseeding for at least 15 years
- applying low or no amounts of artificial compound fertiliser or animal manures and slurries
- applying localised or no herbicide to treat weeds
- leaving field drains unmaintained or maintaining them infrequently (hay meadows may be more actively drained)
- taking conserved forage as hay or haylage no more than once a year
Moorland
Permanent grassland and certain non-agricultural features, such as scrub, scree, bracken and bog, which are located above the moorland line. You can check MAGIC to find out if this is the case.
The vegetation of these moorland areas will usually be:
- semi-natural moorland habitats including heathland, blanket bog, rough acid grasslands, rushy flushes, swamps, mires and bracken
- upland calcareous grassland
A lot of upland moorland is either registered common land or shared grazing.
Hedgerows
Hedgerows which are all of the following:
- a boundary line of shrubs, or both shrubs and trees
- over 20m long
- less than 10m wide
The hedgerow can be newly planted, laid or coppiced. It can also be woody growth on top of an earth or stone-faced bank, for example, Cornish or Devon hedges.
There can be gaps in the hedgerow if they’re not more than:
- 20m long
- 10% of the total length of the relevant hedgerow when you add all the gaps in it together
If the gaps add up to more than 10%, you can only do the actions on the total length of the hedgerow if you’ll plant up the gaps during your 3-year SFI agreement. You can apply for CS capital grants for hedgerow gapping up (BN7) and planting new hedges (BN11) to help you do this.